Since I am in school district who does believe that in the concept of “social capital” as discussed in the article, “The Teacher Leader: Improving Schools by Building Social Capital Through Shared Leadership” I have had the opportunity over the last six years to act as department chair for math and social studies, be part of our Instructional Leadership Team, and our PBIS team. In my role as department chair, I facilitate department meetings and report to our building and district administrators. Fortunately, we are also provided dedicated department time which encourages this practice and I have teammates who are willing to participate. As grade level department chair this year, I am also mentoring two our teachers who are teaching 6th grade social studies for the first time. In the other roles I help make decisions for our school through communicating concerns and issues of those I represent
I have been fortunate to have good role models in my current principal and math coach since they asked me good questions that made me think about my practices As I was taking this class I thought the information about the different types of leadership styles and the discussions of when each can be useful was interesting. I tend, like many others in the class to easily fall into the consultant role, but I wish to become more of a coach with both my peers and students so places I need to improve on are paraphrasing and reflection on my teaching practices. Although, I realize the benefits of paraphrasing, such as valuing others and being on the same page, I doesn’t come natural for me. So with the help of the practice we got in our face-to-face meeting as well as the question starters am I improving. And since reflection has been brought to the forefront, I taking more time to reflect on my teaching practices and as result I believe I am helping my students to be more successful. I am hoping with more practice both of these skills will become more natural.
The overall theme I saw as we went through this course is that as an educational leader we want to help others feel valued and become independent and confident in their own thinking. This started with the first articles, “The Teacher Leader: Improving Schools by Building Social Capital Through Shared Leadership” as it discussed the need to build relationships so we can sustain the programs and practices we believe in and not get burned out . This continued in the article, “Four Stances: A Continuum of Learning-focused Interaction” as it discussed that although there is a time and place for each of the different types of leaders, we really want to get to the place where we are coach so that we are helping people find their own solutions and therefore are gaining confidence in themselves and become more self-reliant. The other article about mentoring, “The Good Mentor” also discussed how is it is important to develop good relationships and to make sure you are meeting the needs of your mentee. To this you need to be able to know what they struggle with and help them to reflect and find solutions which leads into the article “Paraphrasing: An Essential Skill of the Educational Coach” which emphasized this when it talks about the goal of paraphrasing is to help the person you are paraphrasing “to examine and reflect on their beliefs, values, goals, and assumptions along with their feelings and ideas”. By feeling valued and empowered, we are able to grow and get excited about our profession.
As I have been going through this class, I have learned or re-learned how important it is to build relationships with both my peers and students as well as to help them grow to become effective leaders in the future though continued paraphrasing and reflection. I will need to continue to work on my paraphrasing skills as well as my reflective practices in order to do this. It has also helped me to also think about how I need to pass on these skills to others, so for my action research next quarter I plan on finding strategies to help my students reflect upon their work.
References
Corcoran, C. A., & Leahy, R. (2003). Growing professionally through reflective practice. Kappa Delta
Pi Record, 40(1), 30-33.
Hargreaves, A. & Fullan, M. (2013). The power of professional capital: With an investment in
collaboration, teachers become nation builders. Journal Of Staff Development, 34(3), 36-39.
Nappi, J.S. (2014). The teacher leader: Improving schools by building social capital through shared
leadership.The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 80(4), pp. 29-34.
Rowley, J. B. (1999). The good mentor. Educational Leadership, 86(8), 20-22
